Media walls presently often comprise a number of display units located adjacent to one another and controlled such that their combined displays form a single image. The display units and any associated electronic equipment normally require a substantial framework to be constructed, in which the display units and any associated electronic units are housed.
Displays of the above type are normally relatively expensive and may typically be found in prestigious applications, such as a conference room in a headquarters building for example. It is for this reason that such displays are normally housed in a casing, which both hides the framework, any associated electronics units and the cabling, resulting in the display appearing as part of an aesthetically pleasing wall.
Media walls can be particularly aesthetically pleasing if they extend across a complete wall of a room, such that the display units appear to be embedded in the wall, whereas the media wall is actually built in front of the existing wall of a building. The media wall will typically comprise a heavy metal framework of a significant depth in order to accommodate the display units and any associated electronic equipment, which framework will normally be essentially free standing and supported by the floor, although it will likely be tied to the wall for stability. Quite often such a media wall will be spaced away from the wall of a room in order to provide access to the rear of the display wall, in case any electronic component in the wall should fail and need to be replaced or serviced. Thus, when a media wall of the above type is installed this is normally a relatively large project, with the media wall being constructed, possibly off site initially, for a specific application, with it then taking a significant time to build it on site, where many components will have to be cut or adjusted to the specific requirements of the room in which it is to be installed.
More recently software directed particularly to media wall applications is making the media wall a potentially very important tool, particularly for example in businesses that are geographically distributed. If media walls are widely available in such a business, then they may not only enable groups of employees at a number of locations to effectively all attend a common meeting via respective media walls, but the media walls may also enable a host of features to be brought to such a meeting, or to a meeting only involving the attendees in a single room. The significance of this is that there is a need for media walls which, although still aesthetically pleasing, are significantly less expensive to construct and install so that they can be made more widely available.